Ashley Hay: A Hundred Small Lessons

28 MayConversation

Bestselling author of The Railwayman’s Wife, Ashley Hay, comes to the Festival with her newest novel, A Hundred Small Lessons. When Elsie Gormley falls and is forced to leave her home of 62 years, Lucy Kiss and her family move in – and so this story of love, life and ordinary lives intertwined begins. This is a lyrical novel about two mothers from different generations whose lives converge in one hot, wet Brisbane summer. ABC RN’s Kate Evans talks with Ashley about her work and process.

Ashley Hay's latest novel is A Hundred Small Lessons. Her earlier work has won accolades in Australia and abroad, most recently the 2016 Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing. She has been longlisted for awards including the Miles Franklin and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for awards including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Kibble. Her previous novel, The Railwayman's Wife, received the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies' Colin Roderick Award, and People's Choice at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. It was published in the UK, the US and in translation.

Kate Evans presents The Bookshelf on ABC RN with Cassie McCullagh, after years of interviewing writers for RN Books and Arts and Books Plus, as well as working across a whole slew of other RN programs. She regularly appears on stage in conversation with writers and artists. She has a PhD in history, cannot get through a day without reading fiction, and has a wildly idiosyncratic system of shelving and piling up books.